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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Susie's Teeth

Blast from the 2012 past: assembling Audrey II

Bottom left: original teeth

First step forward in getting Susie started. I've decided to nickname the revamping of Audrey II into a T-rex "Susie" in honor of the Tyrannasaurs Rex skull named Sue, but also to differentiate it from my mother (also named Sue). So the Audrey II was from a Little Shop of Horrors theme I did back in...oh wow, 2012. Sarah and I made the iconic gigantic strange and unusual plant with some success and it's been in my rafters for quite a few years. I've been meaning to throw it out (can't keep everything...can you?) and I had the thought that if I could use it one more time, I could more easily throw it out.

So. First up was to add quite a few more teeth. At first I made a few prototype teeth with the air dry clay, following in the Bert tradition; they look nice and you can add detail that you can't otherwise with paper mache. But I quickly realized this would not work with the more-delicate-than-I-remembered Audrey II. The top mouth especially just wouldn't be able to handle the weight. So I switched to the old school method of rolling up newspapers and taping them up with duct tape. I think I ended up making 30+ teeth to fill in the gaps, about 5 inches in length. There had been some teeth added to the original but it was more for the implication of teeth than anything else. The teeth got spray painted white, and while they look very paper mache-y, what they lack in detail they make up for in quantity.

Today I set about taping them down into both sides of the mouth. Once they were set in, I realized they weren't as super secure, as the previous ones had actually been shoved through the chicken wire before being paper mached around. So I found a half a can of great stuff (best. invention. ever.) and filled in the gum line around the teeth. This had a dual purpose of being a lightweight way to secure the teeth, and hide all the tape. It does mean I'll have to go back and paint the gums (pink? bluish? salmon?), but I knew I'd have to paint at some point around there--this just looks a little better.

Next up will be to build up the eyeholes on the top mouth enough so that eyeballs can be put in, as well as some nostrils, and just general additions to the head to try and make it a bit more t-rex like.

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